From 1837 to 1912, Charles Dickens was by far the most popular writer for American readers. Through several sources including statistics, literary biography, newspapers, memoirs, diaries, letters, and interviews, Robert McParland examines a historical time and an emerging national consciousness that defined the American identity before and after the Civil War. American voices present their views, tastes, emotional reactions and identifications, and deep attachment and love for Dickens's characters, stories, themes, and sensibilities as well as for the man himself. Bringing together...

Many of the heralded writers of the 20th century including Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner first made their mark in the 1920s, while established authors like Willa Cather and Sinclair Lewis produced some of their most important works during this period. Classic novels such as The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby, Elmer Gantry, and The Sound and the Fury not only mark prodigious advances in American fiction, they show us the wonder, the struggle, and the promise of the American dream. In Beyond Gatsby: How Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Writers of the...

The unique contribution of this book is the focus upon the testimony of Twain's audience as a unique "reading community"-how his fiction intersected with their real lives, how he impacted American publishing, literacy, and educational reform, and how Americans loved the theatricality and humor that Twain brought to their lives.

John Steinbeck is one of the most popular and important writers in American literature. Novels such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden and the journal Travels with Charley convey the core of Steinbeck's work--fiction that is reflective and compassionate. The Nobel prize winner cared deeply about people, and his writing captured the spirit, determination, and willingness of individuals to fight for their rights and the rights of others. His art of caring is critical for today's readers and as a touchstone for our collective future. In Citizen Steinbeck: Giving Voice to...

This is the first book to bring together the imagination and energy of rock music with its sources in mythology and science fiction. The mythological roots of classic rock music artists from David Bowie, the Jefferson Airplane, and Pink Floyd, to Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Iron Maiden are explored, along with the stories they tell and the critiques of contemporary society that their songs carry.

This book demonstrates how the explosion of distinctly American fiction in the 1920s-including work by authors such as Hemingway, Cather, Dos Passos, Fitzgerald, Faulker, and others-contributed to shaping the national imagination.

Heavy metal is a mythical genre of heroes, outlaws, ominous gods, grotesques, and monsters. It is a proud world of intense battles with chaos and confrontation with modern alienation. Its visual elements draw upon the horror story or film, suggesting chaos and disruption. This study of myth and metal is an attempt to approach heavy metal primarily from a mythological and literary perspective.

Explores the relationship between religion/spirituality and Rock music. The aim is to take an ecumenical approach with the essays in this book, covering a wide range of philosophies and belief systems. This collection of essays investigates the relationship of rock music with religious experience from sociological, theological, and musicological perspectives.